By
– May 24, 2012
The Torah is the foundation of a vast and complex literary experience spanning over two millennia. Perhaps the only single link in this long history is the actual text itself. To understand this complexity, the average reader would have the daunting task of exploring multiple commentators whose writings span centuries.
With the publication of Wisdom by the Week, Rabbi Naftali Rothenberg provides an introduction to this rich and diverse tradition, which has been the hallmark of the Jewish people for nearly 2,000 years. To accomplish this goal, Rothenberg invited writers from across the intellectual and religious spectrum to write their own commentary on a weekly portion of the Torah based upon one or more of their favorite commentaries. The result is a rich exposure through the eyes of contemporary scholars to the writings of both the well-known and the relatively unknown who lived in communities across the globe and whose personal culture highly influenced the way in which they understood the text.
To experience Wisdom by the Week as a weekly commentary opens one’s eyes and mind to this tradition in a new and exciting way. Clearly, coming to the text each week, as I have done over the last few months, provided an opportunity to experience firsthand the deep spiritual thinking that captured the minds and hearts of our people throughout our long history in the Diaspora. The text teaches us that we are and will remain a diverse people with disparate ideas, struggling to understand who we are and how we can improve the world in which we live.
With the publication of Wisdom by the Week, Rabbi Naftali Rothenberg provides an introduction to this rich and diverse tradition, which has been the hallmark of the Jewish people for nearly 2,000 years. To accomplish this goal, Rothenberg invited writers from across the intellectual and religious spectrum to write their own commentary on a weekly portion of the Torah based upon one or more of their favorite commentaries. The result is a rich exposure through the eyes of contemporary scholars to the writings of both the well-known and the relatively unknown who lived in communities across the globe and whose personal culture highly influenced the way in which they understood the text.
To experience Wisdom by the Week as a weekly commentary opens one’s eyes and mind to this tradition in a new and exciting way. Clearly, coming to the text each week, as I have done over the last few months, provided an opportunity to experience firsthand the deep spiritual thinking that captured the minds and hearts of our people throughout our long history in the Diaspora. The text teaches us that we are and will remain a diverse people with disparate ideas, struggling to understand who we are and how we can improve the world in which we live.
Paul A. Flexner, Ed.D., is an Instructor in Educational Psychology at Georgia State University, a veteran of 35 years as a Jewish educator and a member of the Board of Directors of the Jewish Book Council.
